Punakaiki to Golden Bay (Takaka)

Stupid rain.  Our rooms in the hostel were at the very top of the house so we heard it raining all night (Andy's note: I slept like a rock).  And it's still raining this morning.  The most beautiful drive is supposed to be from here to Westport and we may miss it because of the stupid rain.  Oh well. - Written by Katie while still wearing her cranky pants in the morning.

The morning view from our hostel

It turned out to be a rainy day in general, but the drive was still pretty. We saw a lot of coastal beauty the day before so not all was lost.  Before getting into Westport there was a turnoff with a walk to a seal colony.  The view was from the top of a cliff, but down below was a rock outcropping with some mama seals and tons of baby seals.  The baby seals were playing in the little tidal pool, on the rocks or chasing around wekas (a type of flightless bird).

We stopped at a grocery store in Westport (a surprisingly large, bustling town). Lunch was canned chicken in mayo on some rolls we got from the bakery, potato chips and granola bars. We pulled off the road at an overlook of the river in Buller's Gorge and had lunch in the car.  A big part of the drive from Westport was through Buller's Gorge which was pretty cool in the rain, fog, and mist. Every so often we would drive by what were essentially waterfalls near the road because it was raining so much.

We continued north through the rain which came and went but eventually tapered off. Every now and then we would get patches of blue sky and saw at least two rainbows on our drive.
We stopped in the small town of Takarema and picked up 400 mLs of juice and a sleeve of Afghans (delicious chocolate biscuits [aka cookies in the U.S.]).  We then stopped in the larger town of Motueka to get groceries for the next two days.

The view from Hawkes lookout at the top of Takaka Hill

Finally, we made our way on windy route 60 over Takaka Hill and arrived at Annie's Nirvana Lodge around 6pm. Dinner was another stir-fry with the remainder of the rice and some fresh vegetables. As at I write this at 10pm the rain has returned. Tomorrow the rain is suppose to continue so perhaps we'll get an early start on our way to Nelson. We shall see. Making it up as we go along is fun. :)